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I f-ing LOVED the lore and art and music of X1, I loved innovations in air combat, but the combat missions were sluggish and unengaging for me. I remember one of the mods improving on it, but nothing really came even close to the immersion of the combat of JA2 for me – everything about it was so thought through and balanced, it felt REALLY engaging. I would LOVE to see X2's combat resemble JA2 more. Granted JA2 combined real-time and turn-based and that had it's huge effect. I doubt smth like that will be implemented in X2, but still there are many other features and details that can be. So my question is for those who has played JA2, X1 and experienced the X2 beta – has combat become more dynamic, meaning more stuff happening in one turn, and does the battle map feel more alive now than before? The question is specifically about the pace of things, and about there being more available actions. (What I can think of in JA2 that made it's combat feel alive: standing/crouching/prone, stealth movement/fast movement, single/burst/auto firing and multitude of weapons, hearing enemies movements, hearing amplifier, idle animations, background sounds, movement/swimming sounds, it felt like shots echo across the map, wounded enemies leave blood trails, wounded enemies bleed out, enemies sneak/camp/react to what's happening – stupidly or intelligently according to their level, detection dependent on body position/lighting/camouflage/sunglasses/night-vision-goggles, time of day and appropriate lighting and sounds, weather like thunderstorms/sandstorms/etc with sounds, crows here and there that flied away, cool realistic death animations, shooting someone in a leg made them fall to the ground, aiming at different body parts legs/torso/head even in burst/auto mode, in burst/auto mode click and drag made shots spread, bullets flight felt fast realistic kinetic although visible, sounds of hits and enemies pain screams, all actions animated... I guess I could go on, but this is just what I could come up with off the top of my head. Also, and this one is HUGE – many actions could be performed in one turn, and time units were dependent on soldiers skill and state.) So I have this image in my head, as an example of how to make battlemaps more alive. For example in industrial style map I imagine theses huge animated cranes that keep loading/unloading cargo onto the ships, and maybe even crane operator civilians stop working and run if they hear shooting/combat; maybe even some forklifts on the ground doing something similar, moving cargo around; animated water would make it feel SO MUCH MORE alive. Or for countryside maps some cows grazing. And many more civilians running around in panic, this really makes the world feel more alive. In general more surroundings being animated with appropriate sounds would make the world feel more alive and immersive. JA2 did the animations only in real-time mode, but I feel that even in turn-based only mode of Xenonauts animations would feel appropriate, otherwise the world feels frozen and unimmersive. Maybe I am mistaken, who knows. Please share your points of view.

About visibility. Here's a screen from JA2 1.13: This can be shown by holding down a key, but it's not shown by default. First thing is that it is better for the tension to not display cones of view by default. Second thing is that in JA2 not all visible tiles are visible 100%, which also adds to realism. Please make the option to disable the visibility cone and make the map discovered from the start (no fow).

@mclangSo I watched some X2 footage and it turns out some of the things I describe are already implemented, like some idle animations. But what I noticed immediately is the same square by square division of the map, which now feels like an apparent immersion-breaker – the structure of the map should be more realistic and natural, and it will HUGELY improve immersion. X-Com didn't have this separation into "sectors" by some unrealistic walls, it feels more like a battle simulator than a real battle. Death animations are kinda unimpressive, there is no weight to the falling body, it falls like a paper cutout. And it would be cool if effects were animated too, like suppression (cowering holdind one's head), being wounded (checking out the wound and being blooded), a shield breaking (soldier throwing the shield away and leaving it visible on the ground), etc. Also fog of war breaks immersion a lot in my view, both the black and the grey one – constantly seeing your blind spots takes away from the tension and suspense and not knowing the area does not make sense because you arrive seeing everything from bird's-eye view. Also there are no background noises, which makes the map silent like a sterile environment – animals, wind, water, etc., would make it feel so much more alive. I feel it's better to not show the area effect of grenades, it would feel much more realistic and unpredictable. And the smoke spreading slowly instead of instantly is more realistic and immersive too. This also applies to line of fire – it is better to not show it, it feels like actually aiming a weapon, the line breaks that immersion. This does not apply to movement, because it is more natural to plan the movement, but instead of a line it can be a "line" of some grey "footprints" which is more immersive. "Hidden movement" screen is also incredibly immersion breaking, it interrupts the flow of combat. Removing "Alien/Friendly activity" indicators also would make the combat flow so much better. Just everything happening with no "psychic" indications. That "beep" sound when an action can not be completed is better replaced by visual indications that it can not be done. Or some other more pleasant sound. Keep in mind that the footage I've seen is a few months old (it's of Closed Beta v17). And I would LOVE to see some indication that these suggestions are read by the developers, because I really want this game to be as good as it can get.

I've made these suggestions previously to @Chris, particularly the first three (which I have begged for repeatedly). At the moment, every mission feels basically the same. There is no scope for trying different tactics. The weapons are either too samey, or useless (the LMG is a waste of time at the moment as it almost never gives fire suppression of the targets, and is so inaccurate that it feels like your special forces soldier firing it is actually a Stormtrooper! And the flashbang is pointless at the moment - they don't seem to give any more suppression than a regular grenade, but don't do any damage). 1) I totally agree with the prone position being an option as it presents much less of a target for the enemy to shoot at, makes you more difficult to spot in the first place, you can make better use of cover (and the downside is sometimes you can't see past the cover e.g.walls), and you are MUCH more accurate than either standing or crouching. Conversely, getting up and down constantly is very tiring. (I was in the OTC at uni, so I at least know a bit about this! We spent a LOT of time on our belt-buckles!). 2) - I agree with you about additions like scopes and bi/tripods for the support weapons like the LMG and sniper rifle. You basically can't fire either of them standing. Also, things like infrared/night sights/NVGs/under-slung torches would be a nice addition for night missions. Extra support weapons like a 51mm mortar would be nice too as fire support. The grenade launcher was potentially a good idea but it is also useless 3) - Snipers aren't just about shooting long distances; they usually wear ghillie suits and are very difficult to spot so that should be reflected in reduced visibility to some of the aliens. Plus they can look through their scopes for longer distances so maybe a zone-scan for enemy units at long range for say 50% TP would be a cool addition. Again, it would actually make you think a bit more about what specialisms your soldiers have and what kit they can take. Other bits of kit would be things like a device to reduce your visibility to certain aliens, claymore mines that can be remotely triggered or tripwired (most useful in things like terror missions or base defence, esp against the dreaded Reapers), thermal camera, flares or (even better) shamoolies, bayonets for rifles, silencers... Stuff to mix the game up a bit and make it more tactical and varied. 4) I think they could have a look at TUs for shots for some of the weapons, particularly the laser rifles. Also, 40 points of damage for a knife hit, but 12 or something from a pistol. 5) The ability to shoot around a corner or throwing a grenade over a hedge still doesn't work. On the flip side, a hedge isn't going to stop shrapnel. For my tuppence-worth, I think these would be a MUCH better use of coding/designing time than the orbital strike thingy, which I'm not really fussed on because it's just there. It doesn't really add anything to the game IMHO. I just feel that if there aren't these sorts of changes then people who have been waiting for this sequel are going to be somewhat disappointed that the game itself doesn't feel any different to the original, and I think that would be a real shame. OK, rant over